SEXTORTION offences used to threaten young people across the county has increased substantially with children often 'made to feel they are at fault.'
Criminals use fake dating or social media accounts to befriend people online and to persuade them to send intimate pictures, videos or to perform sexual acts. These are recorded and saved and then threatened to share the content with friends and family.
The cases of sextortion rose between October 2022 and October 2023, with 153 cases of sextortion recorded to Wiltshire Police involving those under the age of 18 years in comparison to 84 cases recorded in the previous year.
Child Internet Exploitation Team, DC Jason Walsh said: "In recent months, Wiltshire Police has seen an increase in reports where children have been identified as victims of sextortion.
“This offence can occur across a number of different internet platforms whereby a young person is communicating online with an unknown person who requests they send an indecent image of themselves.
“Once the young person sends the image the conversation changes to demands for money and threatens the image will be posted to their social media feed. When the young person realises what has happened it can cause them significant concern and distress.”
It is illegal for anyone to make, have or share sexual images or videos of those under the age of 18. This includes personal images or videos shared with each other (sexting).
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DS Anthony King said: “It's not always in the public interest to prosecute in these cases. We'll decide whether to take action depending on things like evidence of exploitation or grooming. If you’ve been a victim of sextortion we’d like you to remember, whatever has happened is not your fault, even though you might have been told it is.”
Anyone who has been the victim of sextortion should report it to 101 where it will be dealt with sensitively and the appropriate safeguarding can take place.
DS King added: “Children are often made to feel they are at fault, or that no one will believe them, or that something bad will happen to them or their family, but this is a threat to stop them from telling anyone. You are not to blame.”
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